publicity

There was a time in my life where I believed all publicity was good publicity.

But after having been at the receiving end of non-stop hatemail and reading barbaric headlines about myself that just aren’t true. I have to say, I feel very differently about that now.

The last two weeks have been an absolute roller coaster for me – I got my first hit with the tabloids and I’ve really struggled to come to terms with it all. My initial reaction was to relocate to a non-English speaking country and never come back. How could an open letter expressing hurt and pain have turned into something so ugly?

Two words: bad journalism

Now I can sit here and moan about how I was played by the media and make myself out to be a helpless victim. But I won’t do that. I refuse to give people who fish for ways to ruin the lives of others for their own personal gain the satisfaction of thinking they can silence my voice when they can’t.

So instead, I am going to focus on the positive because I genuinely do believe that some disappointments are a blessing in disguise and if my experience over the last few days has taught me anything, it is that.

The day the fake news about my open letter started circulating the tabloids I was approached by a number of women’s magazines who were genuinely interested in getting to know me and what prompted me to write the open letter.

A number of radio stations also asked to interview me, but because I was so overwhelmed by what was going on I wasn’t up for some it at the time. Thankfully, I have since then been given the chance to speak on national radio about the backlash over the last few weeks, giving me the opportunity to set the record straight.

But what I learned the most about this humbling experience is that there are still good people out there and sometimes, it only takes one person to restore your faith in humanity. I do not believe that the racist trolls and the Debbie Downers represent the vast majority of people in the world and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who showed me love and support during this difficult time. Especially to the journalists who actually did their jobs right (surely I’m allowed to throw shade once?)

I will be doing a video on my YouTube channel towards the end of the week about some of the positive reactions I got to my open letter, as I have come to the realisation that I’ve been heavily focused on the negative (it was hard not to).

To catch up on my radio interviews, check out the press page on my blog as they should clear everything up for you guys! I feel like I’m finally moving on from this, and I’ve even started working on my next few projects – I want to say they won’t cause as much as a stir. But who would I be if I didn’t cause a little bit of drama? 😉

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